I've been having a thought that's been nagging at me for a couple of days. I'm bit of an obsessive compulsive learner, which was much harder before the rise of the Internet (and both Google & Wikipedia are my two best friends). I'm also a bit of a 'prepper' in the sense that I am the kind of person who deliberately stocks up for a winter storm before the leaves on the trees turn to fall colors. For some reason that I can't really recall, my brain got locked onto the subject of off-grid/power outage lighting. As in candles, lanterns, etc. When I get this, I keep revisiting the subject over several days, and this is what has been happening to me.
Over the past several days, thus, I have learned much about how modern lanterns work (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle) as well as historicly how we got there (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight) and the scientific process that such lighting depends upon (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candoluminescence). (Just to give you an idea how my mind wanders across these broad subjects) I also learned that candles, although they are the most basic of lighting technologies, are terribly inefficient as a light emitter (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candles#Light) (although pretty good little heaters at roughly 80 watts heat output per flame) despite still being in wide use on a regular basis across the "third world" along with lanterns, etc. In such places, lanterns are favored for their superior white light compared to the yellowish light of a standard candle; not to mention the flicker of a candle. Yet like many other simple & cheap technologies, candles persist even in first world countries because it's sledgehammer simple and will always work when we need it to. Said another way, when the power fails and the batteries in the emergency flashlight haven't been changed in four years, a simple candle and a match will not fail you whether or not that candle was bought for just such an emergency or because it looks pretty on the mantle and smells nice.
And all this brings me to what has been bugging me. There are many 'rare earth' minerals that have a high candoluminescence that we in our modern world are aware of, meaning that they glow whiter, brighter, with less emissions in the infrared spectrum (meaning less energy lost as heat) and at much lower temps than were ever known in the days that gas lamps dominated London, New York or Paris. The best modern choice being thorium oxide, which is used in almost every modern lantern mantle mass produced in the world, including every Colman propane camping lantern ever produced. So why don't modern candle wicks have a thorium-oxide coated thread of metal in them? I understand why the candles intended for looks or nice smells or comforting background noise (such as Woodwicks) don't include such a simple improvement in luminous efficacy (and potentially light quality, since it would likely be a whiter light) but why not include them in candles made for the purpose of producing lighting, such as those deliberately marketed as emergency candles or those sold in regions of the world where candles are still regarded as a regular light source (as opposed to a medium for perfumes to be atomized and sent airborne in a controlled manner)?
If there are any hobbist candle makers around here, let it be known that I would certainly be willing to buy a custom made emergency candle that included the above simple feature, although I have no idea how one might go about getting thorium-oxide in any useful form.
Poll
